Apple tablet rumored to enter production in February, ship as early as March

We try and steer clear of Apple tablet rumors as best as we can, but the latest is too good to pass up, especially considering that it flies straight in the face of a rumor we ran with nearly one month ago. According to Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner, Apple is almost ready to give its Chinese manufacturing partners the green light to begin mass production of the oft-rumored tablet that is believed to feature a 10.1″ Multi-Touch capacitive display. If all goes well, Reiner believes that the tablet will be available as early as March provided Apple is able to stockpile enough units in order to minimize any potential shortages. So how many units are we talking? Based on an average retail price of $1,000, Reiner predicts Apple could sell as many as 1.5 million tablets in the first quarter. As for content, it’s believed Apple is aggressively going after publishers by offering them the same 30/70 revenue sharing deal as currently exists within Apple’s iTunes App Store. To give you an idea of how attractive the offer will be, Amazon is believed to ask publishers to evenly split revenue on non-exclusive content to its Kindle